Microsoft says Bing has passed 100 million users for the first time, thanks to its chatbot AI

Briefly: The Bing search engine has lengthy been the punchline of many jokes, however due to the launch of its chatbot AI, Microsoft’s product may not be a laughing inventory for for much longer. In accordance with the Redmond big, Bing now has over 100 million each day energetic customers for the primary time in its historical past.

It has been simply over a month since Microsoft announced its new Bing engine powered by a model of the identical AI behind ChatGPT. The up to date model is ready to present extra related outcomes, summarize them from a number of sources, and refine solutions, amongst many different issues.

Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft’s VP for Fashionable Life, Search and Units, writes that due to a lift in numbers stemming from the brand new chatbot, Bing has handed 100 million each day energetic customers for the primary time, one-third of whom are new to Bing.

“We see this attraction of the brand new Bing as a validation of our view that search is due for a reinvention and of the distinctive worth proposition of mixing Search + Solutions + Chat + Creation in a single expertise,” Mehdi wrote.

Along with the additional each day customers, Bing is seeing its engagement develop as extra individuals conduct each day searches. Microsoft says there are two components accountable for this uptick. The primary is the growing variety of individuals utilizing Edge. Like Bing, the browser was mercilessly mocked for a very long time after launch, however that began to alter when it switched to the Chromium-based model. Mehdi expects the brand new Bing and Edge AI options to carry much more customers to its browser.

The second issue is believed to be the introduction of the Prometheus AI mannequin, which Mehdi says has improved the standard of Bing’s search outcomes.

Bing’s chat AI is proving to be well-liked. Round one-third of the search engine’s each day preview customers are utilizing Chat each day. Microsoft is seeing roughly three chats per session, with greater than 45 million complete chats happening because the preview started. Furthermore, 15% of all Bing Chat classes contain individuals utilizing the AI to generate new content material.

The brand new Bing Cellular app has additionally elevated the search engine’s consumer numbers, with six instances extra each day energetic customers in comparison with pre-launch ranges.

Mehdi admits that Bing remains to be a small, low, single-digit-share participant within the search engine market. In accordance with Statista, it has an 8.85% share of the worldwide desktop market in comparison with Chrome’s almost 85%. However the Microsoft exec says it nonetheless feels “good to be on the dance.” However will Google’s personal Chat AI, Bard, spoil the get together when it arrives? Which may rely upon how a lot Google improves its efficiency; Bard gave inaccurate answers throughout its first demo final month.